A&E vs TF1 DVD transfers

Hi all,

While we contemplate the occasional out-of-focus scene on the
A&E UFO DVD's, Catherine Bujold sent me some frame captures
which I think will put things in perspective.

Here is a scene from SURVIVAL off the A&E UFO DVD's:

http://ufoseries.com/temp/survAE.jpg

Here is the same scene from the new TF1 French UFO DVD's:

http://ufoseries.com/temp/survTF1.jpg

(actually this is from the TF1 Space:1999 DVD, but this
is supposed to be the same transfer used on the TF1 UFO DVDs)

As you can see, the TF1 DVD's have NOT been remastered.
So we should be glad that the A&E DVD's don't look like this!
(unless of course you prefer the darker look of the TF1 DVDs)

Thanks Catherine!

Marc

OK, call me stupid...but...outside of the obvious "brightness" of the
remastered scene, is there any other differences? I do notice that the
remastered pic is "wider" -- for example, you can see the whole food dispenser
in the background but not on the TF1. Are there any other differences? The
reason I ask is that it looks like if the TF1 ones had the "birghtness" or
contrast or something turned up before being burned to DVD it would look the
same as the A&E...

I really don't see anything "sharper" on the A&E one...again is it just me?

I know I'm way off base, but that's what it looks like to me!

Anthony
----- Original Message -----
From: "Marc Martin" <[hidden email]>
To: "SHADO Discussion Group" <[hidden email]>
Sent: Wednesday, July 24, 2002 12:44 AM
Subject: [SHADO] A&E vs TF1 DVD transfers

Marc Martin wrote:
Out of curiosity, and because I thought they both looked a bit
rough frankly, I snapped a scan from the same scene from the
Carlton DVD:

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/jgibbon/surviv1.jpg

But in fact, this looks a little bit rough as well .. I'm afraid
SURVIVAL, or at least this scene, didn't emerge quite as well
from the remastering as some of the other material. Compare to
this scan for example, from SUBSMASH, which is sharp as a pin
(and quite easy on the eyes as well, I might add):

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/jgibbon/mufo042.jpg


James

>OK, call me stupid...but...outside of the obvious "brightness" of the
>remastered scene, is there any other differences

Those frame grabs are indicative that the TF1 DVD's are not using the
same transfers, which means they're the using some old transfer that
we've likely seen before, probably similar to those shown on the Sci
Fi Channel in America or released on videotape in the UK. Which
means that the dark scenes have very little detail ("murky" is a word
I use to describe it), there is probably a color "cast" to most of it
(that SURVIVAL frame capture looks a bit blue overall), and as you
noted the frame is zoomed in a bit, the brightness seems low, the
contrast & gamma & color saturation could be better, most likely it's
got dust and other stuff appearing on the film in places, and the
sound is taken from an optical source (lo fidelity) instead of a
magnetic source (hi fidelity).

So while that particular film frame may not indicate much to you, it
actually says quite a lot!

We'll see soon enough...

Marc

The frames posted really demonstrate the difference between re-
mastered and non re-mastered. What is the same is the quality of the
pixelation -I noticed the bluriness (look at the faces and SHADO
badge) - they should be in focus since they are the center of
attention - and it isn't a camera problem - it is the process of
digitizing the product. More expensive methods yield better
results. Also the resolution may have something to do with it.

I still think the UFO set from Carlton is an excellent product - sure
there are nitpicks - a few years from now perhaps another edition
will come out with more extras and perhaps better quality.

OT - I just received the DVD release of Terrahawks (sorry to even
mention that show here) and I was very disappointed. The quality was
fair at most - It was as if they took VHS copies and transfered to
DVD - no remastering at all - thankfully more effort was put into UFO!

KP

"shadokp" wrote:
> What is the same is the quality of the pixelation -I noticed the
> bluriness (look at the faces and SHADO badge) - they should be in
> focus since they are the center of attention - and it isn't a
> camera problem - it is the process of digitizing the product.
> More expensive methods yield better results. Also the resolution
> may have something to do with it.
>

I'm certain that any perceived blurriness is not due to the
image being digitised. It's much more probable, in my opinion,
that there just wasn't sufficient detail in the source material.
As I noted earlier there are some particularly sharp and
beautifully focused images on the DVDs.

James

>I'm certain that any perceived blurriness is not due to the
>image being digitised. It's much more probable, in my opinion,
>that there just wasn't sufficient detail in the source material.

Especially since this blurriness can be found on the Japanese
laserdiscs!

I do however concur that there does appear to be some MPEG
compression related artifacting going on in the A&E DVDs,
which manifests itself as "wierd" motion effects. I see
it in clouds and dissipating smoke. I also sometimes
see it when Skydiver is slowing moving from one side
of the screen to the other. I also noticed it when they
were doing a slow zoom of Foster's face in the sauna --
in this case, it looked like his face had been broken
into several distinct "chunks", which were unevenly
moving closer at inconsistent rates & angles.

But I suspect that these sorts of artifacts show up
in all sorts of DVDs, and the only reason I'm seeing
them on UFO is because I'm really LOOKING for them,
having seen the episodes dozens of times in the past.

Marc

--- "Anthony D" wrote:

> OK, call me stupid...but...outside of the obvious
> "brightness" of the remastered scene, is there any
> other differences? I do notice that the remastered
> pic is "wider" -- for example, you can see the whole
> food dispenser in the background but not on the TF1.

That's right, Anthony! One can see a little bit more on the A&E and
Carlton discs. Here my - unedited - example of the same scene from
the Carlton ones:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/SHADO/files/memorymetropolis/survival-
fosterbill01v.jpg

BTW, it seems that the A&E discs are more colorful than the Carlton
ones - a little bit too much color for my taste.

Christian

> > Here is a scene from SURVIVAL off the A&E UFO DVD's:
> >
> > http://ufoseries.com/temp/survAE.jpg
> >
> > Here is the same scene from the new TF1 French UFO DVD's:
> >
> > http://ufoseries.com/temp/survTF1.jpg

>BTW, it seems that the A&E discs are more colorful than the Carlton
>ones - a little bit too much color for my taste.

I think it has to do more with variations in players than anything
else. On my TV, the Carlton discs are more colorful than the A&E
discs!

Marc

Hello All,

I actually think i may have a genuine SCOOP for everybody.

It appears that HobbyLink Japan has put up a New listing
under Sci-Fi for none other than U.F.O.

Maybe some of you guys have purchased Imai U.F.O. Model Kits
from HLJ in the past??

That is when Imai was still around.

Anyway the New listing under U.F.O. is for what are called
"Trading Figures" or about 3 Inch long PVC toys by a company
called Konami.

Anyone into video games should know the name Konami.

You get 10 randomly packed toys in a box.

There randomly packed so when a kid/adult goes into a
supermarket/ toystore and purchases one of these "Trading Figures"
they dont know what toy they have until they open it up.

I guess that is why they are called Trading Figures(toys) so that if you
get a Double of one you already have you can then "Trade" it for
One you dont have.
It makes collecting fun - I guess?

A box of ten is 3,000Yen or about $25.

I am just SO EXCITED to see some U.F.O. toys i dont care
what they cost!! (O.K. maybe that is an exaggeration)

If you want to see the potential of these toys just take a look
at the Konami "Thunderbirds" Trading Figures via good old E-bay:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=1752603496


Come tell Me i am not the ONLY one excited about this?????

I cant wait until October!

My TFI boxed set arrived in the week, I have only had opportunity to
have the briefest of plays to date, but I would have to say that the
picture quality on my [cheapish multi-region] player is on a par with
both the Carlton and A&E disc's. My view would be TFI have used the
same transfers. My guess is,THAT the preview contained on the TFI
Space 1999 was released prior TFI having access to the remastered
prints,so they just used what was available - after all it was just as
teaser if not a very good one.

The packaging is quite neat and is based on the Carlton sets. It has
a hardback slipcase with two pull out digipaks, with 3 disc's in one
and four in the other. The three disc pak includes a 12 oage booklet
-
in french of course!. Altough TFI have gone for a Matt finish
throughout thier package, rather than the gloss that Carlton used and
I would have to say the artwork in gebneral is not quite so dynamic -
in fact it is a little dowdy in comparision to the Carlton. But is
far superior to the lame multi keep case arrangement that A&E have
decided on.

As I said I have not had time to go through all the discs so there
maybe some differences from the previously released sets, but the
biggestone is all the bonus's seem confined to disc 7.

Based on what I have seen, I would have to say the Carlton
discs/sets are the best, followed by the TFI, with the A&E probably
being the most dispensible to date. I'm not saying the A&E discs are
bad, but they do lack the attention detail of the other two. But as
A&E have yet to issue the second half of the series they have do have
a chance to rectify the situation.

Marty..........






--- In SHADO@y..., Marc Martin <marc@u...> wrote:
> >BTW, it seems that the A&E discs are more colorful than the Carlton
> >ones - a little bit too much color for my taste.
>
> I think it has to do more with variations in players than anything
> else. On my TV, the Carlton discs are more colorful than the A&E
> discs!
>
> Marc

>My TFI boxed set arrived in the week, I have only had opportunity to
>have the briefest of plays to date, but I would have to say that the
>picture quality on my [cheapish multi-region] player is on a par with
>both the Carlton and A&E disc's.

Interesting! I had originally that TF1 might have only gotten
the remastered copies of 3 episodes (COMPUTER AFFAIR, CONFETTI
CHECK A-OK, and SUB-SMASH), but it sounds like you're saying
that they're all remastered??

>Based on what I have seen, I would have to say the Carlton
>discs/sets are the best, followed by the TFI, with the A&E probably
>being the most dispensible to date.

It sounds like you're basing that on the packaging, extras, and
perhaps the menus? I agree that A&E is pretty weak in these areas,
but they do have the advantage of being the only ones which
are not speeded up, and it sounds like A&E's Set 2 may feature
some good extras not found anywhere else.

Also, I assume that the TF1 discs do not have any commentary
tracks?

Marc

>
> Interesting! I had originally that TF1 might have only gotten
> the remastered copies of 3 episodes (COMPUTER AFFAIR, CONFETTI
> CHECK A-OK, and SUB-SMASH), but it sounds like you're saying
> that they're all remastered??


My wife is ensconsed in front of the Tv at the moment watching the
Commonwealth Games so my access to the DVD player is imited at the
moment :-)So I can't confirm every single episode is remastered at
this stage but what I have seen to date would definatley suggest that.

I have just managed to to watch brief excerpts of Identified and have
to say the picture quality is is more or less as the other DVD's.

The extras in Include a Making of UFO documentry [in French!] and 1993
interview with Ed Bishop and interview with Sylvia Anderson before I
could interograte the disc any further my wife asked to have the sport
back on :-)

The navigation menus are really neat, once you have sussed out how
they work!
>
.
>
> It sounds like you're basing that on the packaging, extras, and
> perhaps the menus? I agree that A&E is pretty weak in these areas,
> but they do have the advantage of being the only ones which
> are not speeded up, and it sounds like A&E's Set 2 may feature
> some good extras not found anywhere else.

Correct I'm basing my opinion on the whole of the individual packages.
But as the picture quality of the episodes is of a uniformly high
quality on all three versions Iguess it dos'nt really matter, but I do
like neat packaging.
>
> Also, I assume that the TF1 discs do not have any commentary
> tracks?

I hav'nt found any yet!

Marty.......
>
> Marc

One point I should have really expanded on in my original post. Is the
slipcase is a bookend style, manufactured from a thick stock box,
with a pasted slick cover - similar to the Planet Of The Apes boxed
set. This I guess is a advantage over the Carlton sets as it is likely
to be more durable, and the digipaks are far less likely to fall out.

Marty........



--- In SHADO@y..., "hopkirkmarty" <russell_smith@n...> wrote: that.
>
> I have just managed to to watch brief excerpts of Identified and
have
> to say the picture quality is is more or less as the other DVD's.
>
> The extras in Include a Making of UFO documentry [in French!] and
1993
> interview with Ed Bishop and interview with Sylvia Anderson before
I
> could interograte the disc any further my wife asked to have the
sport
> back on :-)
>
> The navigation menus are really neat, once you have sussed out how
> they work!
> >
> .
> >
> > It sounds like you're basing that on the packaging, extras, and
> > perhaps the menus? I agree that A&E is pretty weak in these
areas,
> > but they do have the advantage of being the only ones which
> > are not speeded up, and it sounds like A&E's Set 2 may feature
> > some good extras not found anywhere else.
>
> Correct I'm basing my opinion on the whole of the individual
packages.
> But as the picture quality of the episodes is of a uniformly high
> quality on all three versions Iguess it dos'nt really matter, but I
do

>The extras in Include a Making of UFO documentry [in French!] and 1993
> interview with Ed Bishop and interview with Sylvia Anderson before I
>could interograte the disc any further my wife asked to have the sport
>back on :-)

Heh, heh... well, when you've got access to the TV again, I'd sure be
interested in hearing about what extras the TF1 DVDs contain that we
haven't seen on either the Carlton or the A&E discs!

Marc

(hoping that my TF1 discs will arrive soon, but realizing that I'm a
long way from France!)

I have managed to to have a better viewing of the French box, though
still not a comprehensive viewing [by any means] of the whole set [it
takes time to plough through 26 episodes when the wife and children
also want access to the Tv :-)]

The only bonus's of note are those I have mentioned previously the
others are interesting [I'm sure] but as my french is very limited, so
is there use to me. There seems to be some info about the "film"
versions [the episodes cobbled together to make the feature length
episodes, but again all written in french]

Having viewed a couple more episodes [I'm still far short of seeing
all of them], maybe I have to concur with Marc view, that all have not
been remastered from original source material, some definatley have.
However, the Long Sleep is quite dark compared to the other DVD's,
there appears to be no actual blemishes it's just appears dark to my
eyes. The sound on one episode seems not as sharp as it it could be,
but on others it is pin sharp.

All in all it seems a curates egg, Im sure others who are more willing
to go through the set more analytical basis. When I originally viewed
it seems I lucked out and picked on the remastered espisodes. It is
still a neat set, but probably more dispensible than I first thought,
though it cool seeing the programmes dubbed in French.

But, as in real terms this set weighs in at nearly have the cost of
the other two, so if you are a die hard, I think it worth getting.

Marty......







--- In SHADO@y..., Marc Martin <marc@u...> wrote:
> >The extras in Include a Making of UFO documentry [in French!] and
1993
> > interview with Ed Bishop and interview with Sylvia Anderson before
I
> >could interograte the disc any further my wife asked to have the
sport
> >back on :-)
>
> Heh, heh... well, when you've got access to the TV again, I'd sure
be
> interested in hearing about what extras the TF1 DVDs contain that we
> haven't seen on either the Carlton or the A&E discs!
>
> Marc
>
> (hoping that my TF1 discs will arrive soon, but realizing that I'm a
> long way from France!)

On 28 Jul 2002 at 7:34, hopkirkmarty wrote:

. It is
still a neat set, but probably more dispensible than I first thought,
though it cool seeing the programmes dubbed in French.

But, as in real terms this set weighs in at nearly have the cost of
the other two, so if you are a die hard, I think it worth getting.

Hmmm, where/how can I get this? I can just see me sending it to my niece
who is currently in a program where she's not permitted to speak anything but
French, and turning her on to yet another fandom (heh).

TAE

>Hmmm, where/how can I get this? I can just see me sending it to my niece
>who is currently in a program where she's not permitted to speak anything but
>French, and turning her on to yet another fandom (heh).

I ordered mine from Amazon.fr:

http://www.amazon.fr/exec/obidos/ASIN/B000066S20/

Although I don't understand French, I was able to order on this site
by opening a second window to Amazon.com, which has the same ordering
process, and using it as a guide to show me which buttons to push. I
think I also used the AltaVista translator once or twice too...

But this set isn't half the cost of A&E's -- from DeepDiscountDvd,
A&E's will cost US$85 for both sets. The French set cost 90 Euros,
which is about the same cost as the A&E set.

And if only some of the episodes are remastered and it doesn't have
any compelling extras not found on the other sets, then the only
reason to get it would be to have it in French, or complete a
collection.

Marc

Hi all,

My French TF1 UFO DVD set arrived today! I've spent a couple of
hours looking it over, and here are my comments:

* The packaging is quite impressive. Not as good as good as Carlton's,
but better than A&E's, with 7 discs in 2 separate digi-paks. Unlike
Carlton, they used a unique character on each disc, so we have
a Henderson volume and a Waterman volume instead of 2 Straker and
2 Freeman volumes.

* The menus are nice too. Not as good as the Carlton ones, but
much nicer than the A&E ones.

* There's a booklet (in French) with character bios and an overview
of SHADO vehicles and bases. The text is credited to Chris Bentley,
so it's likely a translation of what's in the Cartlon sets.

* I've only found 3 episodes which have been remastered -- CONFETTI
CHECK, COMPUTER AFFAIR, and SUB-SMASH. The rest are a mixed bag,
and probably are similar to what's been released on PAL VHS tape
in England by Digital Entertainment, Polygram etc. The quality
varies quite a bit episode-by-episode -- some aren't so bad,
while others are so bad that they almost look like bootlegs.

* The MPEG encoding is terrible -- even on the remastered episodes.
There are all sorts of MPEG "blocking" going on, reminding me
of the early days of DVD's which had poor MPEG encoding.

* You have 2 language choices -- English with French subtitles,
or dubbed in French with no subtitles.

* There are no pictorial scene selections, but the chapter stops
correspond to the commercial breaks (like the Carlton ones).
It also includes the much-requested option "Play all Episodes".

* For some reason, my APEX is having terrible problems accessing
episode 3 on most of these discs. I can hear the player
thrashing around trying to get to it, but sometimes it doesn't
work, while other times it takes a while. (must have something
to do with a layer switch). I can sometimes back into it
by going to episode 4 and then going back on the chapters.

* The extras are all on the last disc.

* There are NO publicity stills or behind-the-scenes stills.
None. There are no text based extras like those scene on the
Carlton DVDs. No script excerpts either. And no commentary
tracks.

* Curiously, even though they don't have a remastered episode for IDENTIFIED,
they do have the extended opening sequence and the shortened ending,
which of course look & sound better in the extras section than they
do in the episode!!

* They do not include the 2 extended scenes from EXPOSED.

* It does include the SID audio recording and test from the A&E discs.
In addition, it includes 3 takes of SID singing the song
"Home on the Range" (!) (oh give me a home, where the buffalo roam,
and the skies...). This footage seems to have some SID video
footage that I haven't seen elsewhere (with a long closeup of
that rotating thing on top)

* Also not included on the Carlton discs is a short sequence from KILL STRAKER
(during the search for Captain Craig in the leisure sphere) which
features the original on-the-set audio (you can hear the director talking)
This is only a few seconds long.

* Also not included on the Carlton discs is a sequence demonstrating
how they shot the night scenes. They show Col. Lake and Straker driving
in his car from TIMELASH, and then they show how it was really filmed --
in broad daylight! I would have liked to seen more of this sort of thing,
because you can see everything much more clearly.

* Also not included on the Carlton discs is some alternate sound effects
and music when Tim jumps off the farmhouse roof in THE LONG SLEEP.

* There are 2 short interviews with Ed Bishop and Sylvia Anderson, which
are copyrighted 1992 by Canal Jimmy. Ed talks about the stuff he
usually talks about in UFO interviews, and Sylvia talks about purple
wigs and Aliens. These are both less than 5 minutes long, in English
with French subtitles. (not on the Carlton or A&E discs)

* There's a section on compilation movies, which feature poster artwork
for all of the Italian compilation movies plus INVASION:UFO. Plus,
there is a trailer for INVASION:UFO (also not on Carlton or A&E sets)

* The merchandise section is interesting because it has different merchandise
than the UK discs show -- there's a lot of Italian and Japanese
merchandise instead of a lot of UK merchandise. However, there's
still a lot of overlap with books, dinky toys, puzzles, books, magazine
covers, etc. They do not go into the same amount of detail on the
trading cards (the Carlton DVDs showed every single card, while the TF1
just shows a few)

* It has a section on the Italian photo novels, and takes you through
IDENTIFIED, showing you each frame from the magazine individually
and in sequence (this takes 10 minutes). They also show the covers
to all the Italian UFO photo novels.

* There's a few bits of UFO trivia on an "easter egg" type menu.

* There are ads for all the other ITC series which TF1 presumably is
releasing on video (The Saint, Danger Man, the Champions, the Persuaders)

So all in all it's a mixed bag -- nice packaging, but poor episode
quality. Nice menu designs, but missing all the stills on the
Carlton sets. And some unique extras not seen elsewhere, but no
commentary tracks.

I'd have to say that considering the poor episode quality, this is the
worst set of the 3, although it's frustrating that this has some cool
extras not found on the A&E or Carlton sets...

Marc

Hi all,

I'm wondering if anyone here has the TF1 UFO DVD's and also has the
ability to do full resolution DVD frame captures? I'm looking for
some to add to my "Videos" page on my UFO Series Home Page.

Here's some ideas for things which I think might be interesting:

* a few frame capture from episodes showing picture quality
(perhaps with French subtitles)

* A few frames showing the menu design

* A frame showing the "scene selections" (when watching an
episode, hit "TITLE", and it has a text-based method of
getting to scene 1, scene 2, etc.

* A frame from the "day for night" demo, showing Straker and
Lake in the car in broad daylight.

* Frames from the Ed Bishop and Sylvia Anderson interviews.

* Merchandise frames showing some Italian or Japanese merchandise
(something not seen on the Carlton discs)

* Frame from the IDENTIFIED photo-novel

Thanks in advance if anyone is able to do this! (and of course
you'll get credited on my website for doing this)

(And if nobody can do this, I still have my trusty old 320x240 pixel
frame capture card...) :-)

Marc